PSPL II Coverage: Round 2–Finals

Introduction

Round 1 started things off and eliminated the weaker teams; Round 2 and onward is where things start to heat up in any tournament. Now, the teams will be playing each other in a knockout format, so if a team loses, they're out of the entire tournament. It's much less forgiving than Round 1, where you could lose against another team and still advance, but those days are over. It's do or die now for the remaining teams.

Round 2 and the Quarterfinals

Obviously, if you had made it to Round 2, you already had a really good team. Being a group winner is no easy feat, but alas, the tournament can only have one winner. Round 2 and the quarterfinals pitted all of the group winners together and further narrowed down the number of good teams. They brought the count from sixteen really good teams all the way down to four outstanding teams. The battles were intense, and there were some really close matchups, but at this stage, it was still anyone's game. The four remaining teams moved on to the semifinals, where they battled against each other in order to determine the final two.

The Semifinals Matchups:

Italiano vs. Español

Winner: Italiano

Score: 4–3

There is sort of a rivalry here between the two biggest language rooms on PS. Both teams also had similar results from previous rounds and have never really failed to impress. The round was extremely close, with Italiano just pulling out with 4 wins to 3. Alastor Law started it off with a win for Español, but Italiano quickly recovered and got the wins that they needed. The round was pretty much exactly what we would expect from two great teams: a close match.

Wi-Fi vs. Competitive Tutoring

Winner: Wi-Fi

Score: 4–3

This was probably the most intense match of the entire tournament, arguably even more so than the finals. Let's look back at the results from Round 1. Back then, Competitive Tutoring dominated, holding the most points and the largest number of wins at 17. Wi-Fi covered the other extreme, being in the very last place in Round 1, holding barely enough points/wins to even make it to Round 2, so people considered it a miracle that they made it this far. Even with the odds completely stacked against Wi-Fi, they and Competitive Tutoring had one of the closest rounds ever. Competitive Tutoring got the first few wins, and when it honestly seemed like all hope was lost for Wi-Fi, they came back and brought the score to 3–3. The final fight to determine who would move on to the finals came down to the RU battle between smelliott (Wi-Fi) and Psychotic (Competitive Tutoring). It was a close match, and the battle actually got extremely heated on both sides, but smelliott dramatically revealed the Counter Registeel and won it for Wi-Fi, letting the team that barely made it past Round 1 make it all the way to the finals.

The Final Countdown

It's all down to this—the final two teams going head-to-head. They've been through a lot of tough battles to get here, so let's take a quick look at their progress before we see what ended up happening.

Italiano

Italiano had been a solid contender since the very beginning, as they had a really nice team with some talented players such as galbia and trev. They proved themselves to those who weren't aware of their capabilities when they kicked the fan-favorite team Social Media out of the tournament in Round 2 with a score of 4–2. They then moved on to win the quarterfinals and semifinals in close rounds of 4–3 against other very skilled teams. They proved that they were among the best of the teams around, and they were one round away from victory. However, it's best not to underestimate their opponents, as Wi-Fi had already proved what happens when you do.

Wi-Fi

Let's face it, Wi-Fi is the exact definition of an underdog team. No one would have even come close to predicting that they would make it this far, and this opinion was strengthened by how they struggled past Round 1. They even barely managed to get by Round 2, the quarterfinals, and the semifinals, with a 4–3 score in all of them. However, regardless of the scores, they pulled it together, proved close to everyone wrong, and made it to the finals, fighting for the championship title. They had a big reputation to live up to now, and Italiano is no easy opponent, so they would need to work hard to claim the title of winner of PSPL.

The Results

Italiano won 4–2

It's been a very long road, and both of these teams have already proven themselves greatly. Wi-Fi definitely put up a great fight, but Italiano walked home as the champions that day. Italiano quickly got 3 wins against Wi-Fi, and sadly, Wi-Fi couldn't make a full comeback, only getting 2 wins before Mix defeated snakeindagrass in the second OU match, sealing the tournament win for Italiano.

Conclusion

All in all, PSPL II was a great event, bringing all of PS together to have some fun and participate in what the server is really about, battling. Every single team that participated should be very proud of themselves, because we had some great players out there, and it really made for an enjoyable experience for everyone. Now that it's over, I'll be looking for you next year when PSPL III rolls around.

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